


Riptide

by cognomen



Series: Cognomen's List of Things that Aren't Reptiles [2]
Category: Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-03
Updated: 2018-02-03
Packaged: 2019-03-12 21:32:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13555995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cognomen/pseuds/cognomen
Summary: February Ficlet Challenge Day 2 - Pairing: Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan. Prompt: Character B can't sleep.“Master Qui-Gon,” Obi-Wan’s voice over the commlink doesn’t quite wake him.Qui-Gon is already up, though he’s laying still in the darkness of the hut.





	Riptide

“Master Qui-Gon,” Obi-Wan’s voice over the commlink doesn’t quite wake him.

Qui-Gon is already up, though he’s laying still in the darkness of the hut. Tatooine gets colder when the second sun sets, leaving him wishing for a blanket. He lifts himself up from the thin mattress spread on the floor and steps over the gangling outstretched limbs of the sleeping gungan and out into the evening.

“I’m here,” Qui-Gon answers, when he’s sure he won’t wake anyone else by speaking.

“Master,” Obi-Wan’s voice is hesitant. They have been years together in their companionship and Obi-Wan has grown beyond what the Force in him had indicated when they’d first met. The surprising and pleasing effects of individuality, when a light shown on it. “I’m sorry I question you so often.”

A dangerous feeling of fond attachment pours itself behind Qui-Gon’s heart. There is a link between them in the Force; a singing bond like Family that Qui-Gon can’t convince himself is bad. After all, detachment always comes with death, and the living force is brighter. 

“No one man or Jedi Master is infallible.” Qui-Gon reassures his apprentice. “Besides, mindless obedience isn’t a quality I’ve ever valued. It’s not a path the Jedi should embrace.”

If, somewhere, Obi-Wan didn’t already believe that, he’d never have been an apprentice at all.

“You didn’t call just for that,” Qui-Gon continues, when he senses hesitation in his apprentice. Obi-Wan often diverts with a shield, and then decides whether to press his opening.

While he considers, Qui-Gon looks over the street. The sandstorm has gone, leaving a cover of fine grit over everything, blanketing the world with a layer of silica and quartz, with the occasional speck reflecting moonlight in a glittering rebellion against the drab grey and blue night.

“I couldn’t sleep, Master,” Obi-Wan says.

“Are you concerned about the Trade Federation?”

“Of course, but it isn’t that,” Obi-Wan reveals. “IT’s like something else is moving. Something no one can see under the skin of the Galaxy.”

This is an ominous portent from someone so practical as Obi-Wan. Perhaps only because Qui-Gon too is certain there are machinations at work behind the falling dominoes in the galaxy.

“You said I should be mindful of the living force,” Obi-Wan continues, mistaking Qui-Gon’s thoughtful silence for simple listening. “I am, but it’s like a river these days.”

Depth and motion and a riptide beneath. Qui-Gon knows.

“I’ve felt the same,” Qui-Gon admits, watching one glinting hint in the sand. How often mistaken for a diamond in the rough, when it is only pounded quartz? “I couldn’t sleep, either.”


End file.
